This embodiment of the invention relates to evaluation of data paths in devices, and more particularly to evaluation of voice data paths in telephony network devices.
As new hardware designs are implemented, both in data processing networks in general and in telephony voice processing networks in particular, it is important to be able to validate the reliability and integrity of the data path. In digital telephone emulation systems a significant portion of the hardware front-end is dedicated to handling the voice data path. With the high complexity of such hardware, the likelihood of loss of signal integrity is increased. Generally, a listening test does not provide enough information to validate the reliability and integrity of this path. Errors in this processing may go undetected by typical subjective audio quality tests. In addition, a listening test rarely provides information to what the source of a problem may be.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to quantitatively evaluate the hardware design in a manner which enables identification of the source of the problems.